Not a private confrontation, not a courtroom months down the line, but this: the exposure of the Vance family’s fraud on the exact stage they had built to celebrate their fraudulent goodness, in front of the exact audience they had spent twenty years deceiving.

Chapter 16 — Do You Know Who We Are

Julian recovered his voice first, and reached, as he always did, for the only weapon he had ever truly trusted: his family’s importance.

He stepped in front of his mother, his face going bright red.

“What is the meaning of this insolence?

Do you have any idea who we are?

My attorneys will have your badges for this!”

Agent Croft did not so much as blink.